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Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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June 24, 2003
Libertarian Party foolishness
I've supported the Libertarian Party my whole adult life. I have never in life voted against a candidate of the party, and have been an LP candidate now thrice.
Nonetheless, I'm becoming increasingly disillusioned with some statements of the national office and chair. I generally don't think they're taking our nation's defense seriously, and I am particularly unhappy with Chairman Neale's presumptions to unilaterally make policy statements on behalf of the membership with no obvious authority to do so. The foolish nature of some of those statements makes it that much worse. Recently they hit something near to a new low in utter goddam stupidity in a press release. Let's just look at the whole text of this release:
For release: June 20, 2003
===============================
For additional information:
George Getz, Communications Director
Phone: (202) 333-0008
E-Mail: Pressreleases@hq.LP.org
====================================
Pull the plug on Congressional inquiry
into Iraq's weapons, Libertarian Party says
WASHINGTON, DC -- Congressional hearings into the Bush administration's
claims about Iraq's weapons program are a waste of time, Libertarians
say, because the public already knows that presidents routinely lie or
exaggerate to justify waging war.
"Surprise! It appears that another U.S. leader has manipulated facts
and exaggerated threats in order to whip up war hysteria," said Joe
Seehusen, executive director of the Libertarian Party, which staunchly
opposed the invasion of Iraq. "Do we really need a congressional
hearing to discover that politicians are adept at using words as
weapons of mass deception?"
Prompted by the continuing failure to find chemical or biological
weapons since Baghdad fell on April 9, the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence is holding hearings into the accuracy of the Bush
administration's prewar claims about Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction. Over the past several weeks Bush has been stung by
allegations from intelligence officials and others that he misused
intelligence data to justify the war.
But congressional hearings are utterly pointless, Libertarians say,
because they will only tell Americans what they already know.
"History is replete with examples of U.S. leaders lying our country
into war, so why should we expect this war to be any different?" he
asked.
A few specific cases:
* In 1898, the U.S.S. Maine blew up off the coast of Cuba, killing
over 250 U.S. sailors. Although most historians believe it was an
accident, Congress used "Remember the Maine" as a rallying cry to
declare war on Spain.
* In 1964, two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin reported being
fired upon by the North Vietnamese -- an attack that in reality never
happened. Yet President Lyndon Johnson used the incident to win support
for a Congressional resolution authorizing military force in Vietnam.
* In 1990, President George Bush Sr. perpetrated the infamous "babies-
being-pulled-from-incubators hoax," which claimed that Iraqi troops had
invaded a hospital in Kuwait City, ripped babies from incubators and
shipped the incubators off to Baghdad. After the war it was determined
that the story had been fabricated by a Washington public relations
firm that had been paid $10.7 million by the government of Kuwait.
With such a track record of presidential deceit, it's disingenuous for
Congress to pretend to be shocked by another misuse of intelligence
data, Seehusen said.
"Perhaps Congress is hoping that these hearings will shield them from
responsibility for a war that didn't have to be fought," he noted.
"Keep in mind that last October, 296 Representatives and 77 Senators
voted in favor of a resolution supporting the invasion of Iraq. So
every one of these individuals is just as responsible as Bush for the
consequences of that decision -- and convening a hearing won't change
that."
Seehusen acknowledged that it may be too early to say definitively that
Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction.
"But if such evidence does turn up, two serious questions remain,"
Seehusen said.
"One, did the weapons exist in a sufficient amount to pose an actual
threat to the United States? The fact that Saddam declined to use WMD
even when the destruction of his regime became imminent is a strong
indication that they did not.
"Two, even if Saddam did have such weapons, would he have used them to
attack the United States if a U.S. strike against Iraq were not
planned?
"At the very least, Bush's claims about Iraq seem to have been
exaggerated, and at worst, completely untrue.
"The way to avoid unnecessary wars in the future is to demand the truth
before the war -- rather than holding congressional hearings after the
war."
First of all, the headline is not true. The "Libertarian Party" didn't say jack squat. I doubt there was any vote from the national committee on the issue, and I wouldn't be much impressed even with that. There certainly was no kind of vote of the party membership involved. This comes from just a couple of people in the national office presuming to speak on everyone else's behalf. Speaking for myself and the Franklin County, Indiana Libertarian Party, I can tell you they do NOT.
Nor did the party oppose the invasion of Iraq. The last time the membership got together was our national convention in Indianapolis in 2002. I was there, and there was no vote to oppose the invasion of Iraq, or anything like. [I was, however, pleased to vote with the vast majority in opposing the creation of the new cabinet office for Homeland Security.]
Worse yet, the content of this statement is just assinine, whoever is saying it. The main point seems to be that we should not bother to hold hearings about the WMDs that we expected to but haven't found. According to these people, we should just cancel hearings and assume that Bush et al were just lying.
What kind of nonsense is this? There are LOTS of questions that need to be asked, for lots of reasons. Did the president actually fabricate reports of WMDs, or purposely severely misrepresent intelligence reports? I find this highly unlikely, but these would be real impeachable offenses. Was our intelligence SO bad as to be totally unreliable, telling Bush that Hussein was ass deep in biological and chemical weapons when he wasn't? We and the congress definitely need to know about that.
Or perhaps the problem goes the other way; that is, maybe the problem is that Hussein had the stuff, but we just haven't found it. I'm inclined to believe this, and it presents considerably worse problems than thinking that he didn't. Even the French dirtbags conceded that he had the stuff. Hell, he used it on his own people.
Alright, then where is the stuff? Enquiring minds damn sure want to know. Are there just tons of WMDs sitting right now in Iraq right under our noses, and we're not smart enough to find them? That's not good. Has a bunch of this stuff been whisked out to Lebanon, or (Rand forbid) distributed to third parties?
We need to find some answers here. This absolutely requires congressional investigation. It might make the president look bad, or it might justify him. At some point, I say screw him. It's not all about Bush. We've got much bigger problems than one politician.
The one thing we obviously better NOT do is drop the matter. We have to follow through on this crucial issue. Anyone who says otherwise just isn't being serious or responsible.
Baloo's birthday
Born June 24, 1904, Phil Harris would be 99 today. He's also one of our Hoosier heroes, born in Linton, Indiana. He was an active bandleader and actor, with movie credits going back to the early 1930s.
He became best known, however, for his work in Disney films. He had just a perfect voice, rough and manly, but playful. His iconic, immortal personnae came as Baloo in The Jungle Book. Particularly, he is the voice of "The Bare Necessities," which certainly rates as one of the top ten Disney songs ever.
He also took centerstage in some sly racial pride as J Thomas O'Malley in The Aristocats. As all us lame white boys know, "Everybody Wants To Be a Cat."
Somewhat lesser known, he was Little John in the 1973 Disney animated Robin Hood. This got him the lead vocal on the really outstanding and underappreciated original Roger Miller song "The Phony King of England" which takes mockery of Prince John downhome to New Orleans.
posted by Al at 6/24/2003 06:43:00 PM
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